Work

Timing of Nitrogen Fertilizer Application for Annual Ryegrass Overseeded into Unimproved Perennial Warm‐season Pasture

Year: 2015

Type: article

Abstract: Successful production of herbage by cool‐season forage grasses in the southern Plains is heavily dependent on a sufficient supply of available nitrogen (N), and appropriate scheduling of N application is an important component of cost‐effective fertilizer use. The effects of different combinations of fall, early‐spring, and late‐spring increments of 22.3 lb N/acre on herbage dry matter (DM) and N yields of annual (Italian) ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) were tested over 3 yr. Fall N application had minimal effect on ryegrass establishment, measured in plant or tiller counts in the following spring. Application of N in fall did not produce harvestable herbage DM in fall and provided significant increase in DM yield in the following spring in only one year out of three. Early‐spring N application produced significant yield increase in two out of three years and provided a mean yield response of 17.2 lb DM/lb N applied. Application of N for regrowth after initial ryegrass harvest in early May produced a mean yield increment of 6.7 lb DM/lb N applied. There was no residual effect of fall or spring N application on warm‐season grass production. Limited N supply (<89 lb N/acre) is likely to be most efficiently used when applied at the beginning of the spring growing season.

Source: Crop Forage & Turfgrass Management

DOI: 10.2134/cftm2013.0018

Author: P. W. Bartholomew

Institutions: Agricultural Research Service, Grazinglands Research Laboratory

Language: English

Topic: Pasture and Agricultural Systems

Subfield: Agronomy and Crop Science

Field: Agricultural and Biological Sciences

Domain: Life Sciences

SDG: Zero hunger

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $1,800